McCreevy warning over Aer Rianta break-up

Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter

Following an agreement reached with Aer Rianta unions last week, the Government is expected to publish legislation to set the break-up in motion tomorrow.

However Mr McCreevy, who has already clashed at Cabinet with Transport Minister Seamus Brennan over the proposal, warned that plans must be financially viable.

As Finance Minister, Mr McCreevy will be responsible for finally signing off on any plans before they are given the final go-ahead.

"I'm not going to sign onto a financial package that's going to be worse than what we had in the beginning," he said.

Tomorrow's bill is understood to prevent Shannon and Cork Airports from becoming autonomous before April next year. However, in the capital, a new Dublin Airport Authority is to be established as soon as the legislation is passed next month to replace the current Aer Rianta board.

Under the plan agreed last week as part of national pay negotiations the new authority would take control of all three airports until next year.

But already the proposal has run into difficulty with current Aer Rianta board members claiming that any move to dissolve the board before April next year would be in breach of last week's deal.

Over the weekend SIPTU said it understood the new boards of the three airports would have no operational control until April next while Government sources were reported to have indicated the boards will have operational control as soon as legislation is passed early next month.